The RAD52 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae controls the repair of ionizing radiation induced DNA double-strand breaks, radiation-induced recombination and recombination in meiotic cells. A comparison of crude extracts from logarithmically growing cells of wild-type and rad52 mutants reveals that the mutant lacks an alkaline deoxyribonuclease. When the same alkaline deoxyribonuclease is followed through meiosis, RAD52 extracts exhibit maximum activity at three hours into meiosis with a 50% to 100% increase over the activity at 0 time. No increase is observed for rad52. Extracts from logarithmically growing rho(o) strains, however, also lack this alkaline deoxyribonuclease. But when a more sensitive system is utilized, extracts from rho(o) strains exhibit competition for the antibody while no competition is observed for rad52 extracts. These results are consistent with observations of RAD52 genetic function in rho(o) strains and indicate that the RAD52 controlled alkaline deoxyribonuclease is a processed function in rho(o) strains.